AIF Insights No. 14 (2026) | The Robotic Frontier: Reconfiguring Global Power and the Geopolitics of Unmanned Systems

The rapid global proliferation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has fundamentally reconfigured geopolitical power dynamics by democratizing airpower and lowering the threshold for the use of military force. While over 95 nations now deploy drones, these “unmanned” systems remain heavily dependent on human operators who face unique psychological challenges due to the disconnect between remote combat and domestic life. In Asia, the fast-growing drone market supports community resilience through applications in agriculture and environmental monitoring, yet it also presents a “big data divide” where information control remains concentrated in wealthy international entities. For Cambodia, integrating drone technology offers significant opportunities for sustainable development and maritime surveillance, provided the nation adopts a strategic roadmap focused on economic resilience, technological sovereignty through open-source frameworks, and robust regulatory safety measures like geofencing. Ultimately, navigating this frontier requires a balance between leveraging autonomous technological advancements and maintaining human oversight of ethical and security-related decision-making